Nursing unit



lA. C. BARR NURSING UNIT oct; 7,1969

Filed July l2. 1968 United States Patent() 3,471,050 NURSING UNIT ArthurC. Barr, 111 King St., Madison, Wis. 53703 Filed July 12, 1968, Ser. No.744,537 Int. Cl. A61j 9/08, 9/00 U.S. Cl. 215-11 9 Claims ABSTRACT F THEDISCLOSURE BACKGROUND The invention pertains generally to bottlesadapted for nursing; that is for dispensing liquid infant rfood.

The conventional baby nurser includes a reusable bottle, nipple and cap.It has the advantage of being reusable, but certain disadvantages whenused with young infants. One chief disadvantage is the possibility ofcolic resulting from feeding air through the nipple. Nursing unitshaving collapsible liners overcome Ithis problem but, for `the mostpant, are useless without the liners. Thus, should a mother run out ofliners at `an inopportune time, a different nursing unit must be used.Other prior art arrangements have incorporated a plastic liner with aconventional nurser, for example see U.S. Patent No. 2,624,485. These,however, do not overcome the disadvantages of the conventional nurser.

SUMMARY 'Ilhe present invention relates generally to a new and improvednursing unit. More particularly, the present invention relates to anursing unit which provides a coillapsible liner in `an imperviousibottle and which line-r collapses as the liquid infant food isdispensed therefrom.

It is a general object of the present invention to provide a nursingunit which has the advantages of both the conventional nurser and thecollapsible nurser.

Another object is to provide 'a nursing unit which can be used as eithera convention-al nurser or a collapsible nurser.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a nursingunit which utilizes la conventional baby bottle and a flexible liner inthe bottle, Vand provides apparatus for communicating the area betweenthe liner and bottle to atmosphere so that the liner collapses as theliquid infant food is dispensed therefrom.

These, and other objects and advantages oaf the present invention, willbecome obvious as the invention becomes better understood yfrom thefollowing description when taken with the drawings.

DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is generally a vertical sectional view. with some partsin elevation, of a preferred embodiment of the present invention lledwith a liquid infant flood;

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the nursing unit in a dispensingposition land illustrating the collapsing of the exible `liner `as theliquid is dispensed;

FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view, on an enlarged scale, illustratingthe relationship of the parts and the venting means in greater detail;`and FIGS. 4 and 5 are a vertical sectional view and a bottom view,respectively, of a preferred insert utilized in the present invention.

3,471,050 Patented Oct. 7, 1969 DESCRIPTION Reference is now made moreparticularly to the drawings which illustrate one for-m of the presentinvention and wherein similar reference characters indicate the sameparts throughout the several views.

The nursing unit of the present invention includes a bottle 10, `anipple 12, and la retainingr cap 14. The bottle 10 is preferably made ofa strong, `generally transparent material, such as glass or plastic, andwhich material is resistant to heat and impervious to liquid. In theembodiment illustrated, the bott-le is of hexagonal shape and of theeight ounce size, it being understood that other sizes and shapes may beutilized. On the side of the bottle are longitudinally positioned,spaced indicia or markings 21 vfor determining 4the amount of liquidinfant food 18 remaining in the unit. In the embodiment illustrated. thebottle is slightly necked at the topleaving a generally wide mouth 22which terminates in a lip 23. The bottle lip 23 is preferably smooth andflat. As is conventional, the top of the bottle is circular incross-section and provided with a screw thread 24 at the outside of theneck. Preferably, the thread 24 is discontinuous, as best seen in FIG.3, for purpose hereafter explained.

Received in the lbottle 10 is a flexible diner 30 that is preferablyimpervious to liquid, being made o-f a strong, generally transparent,heat-resistant material, such as synthetic resin. The bottom edge of theliner or bag 30 is sealed at 31. The top of the liner is open and turnedback over lthe top of the bottle as shown at 32. The length andIdiameter of the liner, when lled with the liquid infant Ifood 18, isgreat enough to fill the entire bottle so that the indicia 21 may serveto indicate the quantity of the contents in the liner. Additionally, bylying closely adjacent the walls of the bottle 10, heat is transmittedthnough the liner 30 to the liquid infant food 18 when the 'bottle iswarmed.

The bag or liner 30 is lof conventional construction and readilyavailable on the market in the form of a sterile nolll of tlattenedplastic tubing. The tubing has spaced seal areas 31 and may haveperforations at one side of the seal area for yserving one bag from theroll. After each use of the nursing unit, the bag may be discarded and anew bag removed from the roll.

Overlying the liner 30 at the top lip 23 of the bottle, is thelaforementioned nipple 12 which is held in place by the retaining `carp14. In general, the nipple 12 includes a peripheral ange 42 and a hollowteat portion 44 rising upwardly therefrom. 'Tlhe tip end of the nippleh'as an opening 46 for dispensing of the liquid infant food. The nippleillustrated is identical to that illustrated and described in U.S.Patent No. 3,113,569 issued to Arthur C. Barr and Norma K. Barr, andreference is made thereto for a more complete description thereof. Itshould be understood, however, that any conventional nipple may beutilized with the present invention.

The retaining cap 14 has an inwardly extending flange 52 with a circularopening 54. The flange S2 overlies the nipple flange 42 and the opening54 permits the teat portion 44 to project therethrough. The cap 14 hasIa downturned annular ilange 56 having Ian intern-al thread 58 whichengages the bottle thread 24 to hold the cap in place. When the cap istightly screwed do-wn, a seal is provided between the nipple ilange 42and the liner 30.

In FIGURE l the nursing unit is shown with the liner Iholding the liquidinfant lfood. The weight of the liquid causes the liner to assume theshape of the bottle, as shown. In FIGURE 2, the nursing unit is shown ina dispensing position with the liner 30 collapsed around the the opening46 closely approximates the natural form of feeding. The liquid can bemore easily withdrawn by a newborn baby, for example, than when the babymust dr-aw a partial vacuum on the bottle as occurs in a conventionalnurser. Additionally, with the collapse of the flexible liner 30, no owof air into the liner is required thereby alleviating the possibility ofcolic.

Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is shown one embodiment of anapparatus which cooperates in venting the space between the liner 30 andthe bottle 10 to atmosphere. As shown, the apparatus comprises aninsert, generally designated 60, and having a generally L-shaped crosssection. FDhe insert 60 includes a first portion 62 designed to overliethe bottle lip 23. The upper surface of portion 62 is preferably at Iandsmooth, and it is over this upper surface that the liner extends. Thus,it is the upper surface of portion 62 to which the liner is clamped bythe nipple flange 42. A second annular portion 64 extends downwardlyfrom portion 62 and is shaped for inserting into the bottle mouth 22 toposition the insert at the open end of the bottle. The lower end 65 ofportion 64 is preferably tapered outwardly toward `the bottle wall toallow the liner 30 to |lie closely adjacent thereto. A plurality ofchannels are provided in the insert 60 to allow the passage of air fromthe outside off the bottle into the space between the liner and insideof the bottle. For this punpose, a plurality of radially extendinggrooves 66 extend along the bottom side of the portion 62 and throughthe depending portion 64. Thus the grooves 66 are shown as openings inthe portion 64, as seen in FIG. 4. Other grooves 68 extend acrossportion 62 and downwardly through depending portion 64 to the lower endthereof and are shown as slots in FIG. 4. In this manner7 grooves 68 are`advantageously in communication with the inside of the lbottle neck andwith the bottle lip to provide an air vent extending to the outside ofthe bottle. Air at atmospheric pressure can reach the grooves 66 and 67by owing between the threaded neck of the bottle and the downturnedportion of the insert 30. 'Ilo aid in this communication, the thread 24is interrupted or discontinous, as shown in FIG. 3, to provide an airpassageway from the outside of the nursing unit to the aforementionedgrooves. Alternately, the threads 24 and 58 may be so arranged toprovide an air 'channel there-along to accomplish the same purpose. Witheither structure, means is provided for continuously venting the spacebetween the insert 30 4and bottle 10 to allow the flexible liner 30 tocollapse as the liquid infant food is dispensed therefrom.

The nursing unit ldescribed herein can be utilized as a conventionalnurser, if desired, or with the insert 60 and liner 30 as a collapsiblenurser. In this manner, the unit is convertible. It is now deemedobvious that there has been described one embodiment of the nursing unitwhich has the advantages of both the conventional nurser and thecollapsible nu-rser, and accomplishes this desirable result by providinga flexible liner in a conventional baby bottle, and apparatus forcommunicating the area between the liner and the bottle 4to atmosphereso that the liner collapses as the liqtuid infant food is 'dispensedtherefrom.

What is claimed is:

1. In a nursing unit for liquid infant food, including Kan impervious,reusable bottle having a neck at the top Kand terminating in aperipheral lip dening an open mouth; and a nursing nipple overlying thebottle mouth; the improvement comprising: a disposable, impervious linerreceived in the bottle Afor holding the liquid and made of iiexiblematerial lopen at the top end; the liner extending over the bottle lip;venting means at the mouth of the bottle between the bottle and linerfor communicating the area between the liner and bottle to atmosphere sothe ilexible liner collapses as the liquid is dispensed there- Lfrom;and mounting means for mounting the nursing nipple in sealingrelationship to the liner and for holding the liner in place at thebottle mouth.

2. A nursing unit as set fort-h in claim 1 wherein the venting meanscomprises a removable annular insert overlying the lbottle lip andhaving a smooth upper surface 'for contacting the exible liner; theinsert having at least one opening extending from the outside ofthebottle and over the bottle lip to a point at the inside of the bottle tovent the area between the bottle and liner; and the bottle, nursingnipple, and mounting mean-s being usable as a unit @in the ordinarymanner when the liner and insert are removed.

3. A nursing unit as set forth in claim 2 wherein the annular insert hasa generally L-shaped cross section and includes a tirst portionoverlying the bottle lip and a second portion extending downwardly fromthe first portion at the inside of the `bottle to position the insert.

4. A nursing unit as set forth in claim 3 wherein: the flexible linerhas a `size at least as large as Ithe bottle to till the bottle spacerwhen llilled with the liquid infant food, the iiexible Iliner and the'bottle are generally transparent so the liquid level is readilyascertained, the bottle having indicia thereon to indicate the liquidvolume in the bottle, and the second portion of the annular inserthaving a downwardly and outwardly tapered lower end to dispose theflexible liner closely adjacent the bottle.

5. The combination of claim 1 wherein: the venting means comprises anannu-lar insert on the bottle lip Iand having a smooth upper surface forcontacting the flexible liner, the insert having an opening extendingfrom outside the bottle to a point inside the bottle to vent the areabetween the bottle and liner, the liner having a portion at its upperend turned `downwardly outside the bottle neck, the bottle neck havingthreads on the outside thereof, the mounting means comprises a removableretaining cap which overlies a portion of the nursing nipple and has adepending portion outside the bottle neck, the depending portion havingthreads thereon interitting with the bottle threads to provide athreaded connection, and the threaded connection operative to hold theliner in place and providing an air passageway between the liner andbottle neck from outside the bottle to the insert opening.

6. In a nursing unit `for Iliquid infant food, including an impervious,reusable bottle having a neck at the top and terminating in a peripherallip defining an open mouth; a removable retaining cap adjustably securedto said neck and having an inwardly extending ange defining a centralaperture; and a nursing nipple having an upstanding central portionextending through said aperture and a laterally-extending peripheralflange overlying the bottle lip inside the cap iiange; the improvementwhich comprises a disposable, impervious liner received in the bottlefor holding the liquid and having an upper portion extending over thebottle lip under the nursing nipple and turned ldownwardly outside thebottle neck; venting means for continuously venting the area between the`liner and the inside of the bottle; the venting means including aninsert disposed between the liner and the bottle lip and generallycoextensive with the bottle lip; the insert having at least one channelextending over the bottle lip to continuously communicate the ventedarea with the outside of the bottle; and means `for communicating airfrom outside the nursing unit to said channel so the liner collapses asthe liquid is ldispensed therefrom; and said retaining cap operative toclamp the nursing nipple against the liner to provide la liquid-tightseal therebetween.

7. The combination of claim 6 wherein: Ithe bottle neck has exteriorthreads thereon, the retaining cap has threads for clamping thedownwardly turned portion of the liner to the bottle neck and providinga threaded connection to secure the cap in place, and the means forcommunicating air to said channel is through the threaded connectionbetween the liner and the neck threads.

8. The combination of claim 6 wherein the insert includes a iirstportion overlying the bottle lip and a second portion extending`downwardly therefrom at the inside of the bottle to position theinsert, and wherein the channel extends across the iirst and secondportions to the inside of the second portion.

9. The combination of claim 6 wherein the 'insert in- 6 cludes ka. iirstportion overlying the bot-'fle lip and a second 2,767,871 10/ 1956Shapiro. portion extending downwardly therefrom at the inside of3,075,666 1/1963 Hcifstein, the bottle to position the insert, -andwherein the channel 3,161,311 12/1964 Boston extends across the iirstportion in communication with the bottle lip and downwardly across thesecond portion in 5 3362555 1/1968 Soto' commumcatxon lwl'th the bottleneck. J AMES B. M ARBERT, Primary Examiner References Cited U'S. OL X'R.UNITED STATES PATENTS 99 171 1,695,076 12/ 1928 Zohe. 10

2,624,485 1/ 195 3 Boston.

